Supporting Evidence-Based Food Decisions in Programmes: GAIN’s New Screening Tool for Nutrition, Food Safety, and Sustainability
Food choices play a dual role in shaping both human health and environmental sustainability. At the individual level, diets that lack diversity, fall short of essential nutrients, contain excessive amounts of foods high in sugar, unhealthy fats, and salt, or fail to meet food safety standards, and can have serious negative consequences for health (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2025; World Health Organization, n.d.). At the same time, the ways food is produced and consumed affect the environment, —contributing to land degradation, freshwater depletion, climate change, and biodiversity loss (Crippa et al., 2021; Tilman et al., 2017). These environmental impacts, in turn, influence which foods are available, accessible, and affordable, and can alter the nutrient density of crops (Beach et al., 2019; Smith & Myers, 2018), reinforcing this close connection between our food choices and the environment.
Victoria Winyana, A Young Vendor Who Showed Resilience That Kept Her Business Moving
From a loan of 150,000 Ugandan Shillings, to Changing How a Community Eats When school was no longer an option, Victoria Winyana didn't back down. Armed with a modest loan from her mother and a vision to make healthy eating effortless, she transformed a simple market stall into a hub for community well-being. Read how this young Ugandan vendor turned a struggle for survival into a movement for nutrition, trust, and empowerment, one bundle of greens at a time.
Rose Nabasirye Shapes Meals, Shapes Lives
The story highlights Rose Nabasirye, a vegetable vendor in Uganda with over twenty years of experience in the informal food economy, who uses her market stall as an informal classroom to promote healthy eating. Through daily interactions, she guides customers on dietary diversity, taste, and simple recipes, helping transform vegetables into an accessible and creative part of their daily meals. Her involvement with GAIN’s Fit Foods initiative has further enhanced her stall's visibility and credibility, demonstrating how market vendors serve as essential, trusted frontline influencers in improving community nutrition outcomes.
Jamada Nduga, The Supplier Behind Every Fresh Plate
As a vital bridge in Uganda’s local food system, supplier Jamada Nduga travels across rural villages to scout fresh, safe, and chemical-free produce directly from smallholder farmers. By connecting hardworking growers with market vendors through initiatives like GAIN's Fit Foods project, Jamada ensures fair market access for farmers and reliable, high-quality inventory for sellers while playing an essential upstream role in elevating community diets, food safety, and household livelihoods—one fresh vegetable at a time.
How A Market Stall Became A Wellness Classroom
This story highlights Rehema Nakamya, a long-time vendor at Wakiso Central Daily Market in Uganda, who uses her stall as an educational platform to promote community health and nutrition through the Vegetables For All project. Over fifteen years of market changes, Rehema adapted her business to sell both traditional local greens (nakati, dodo, buga) and exotic varieties (spinach, lettuce), while actively teaching customers how to properly wash, prepare, and incorporate leafy vegetables into their daily diets. By building trust and sharing practical advice on disease prevention and healthy habits, she transforms the simple act of selling produce into a powerful tool for shaping better diets and long-term community well-being.
A New Small Fish Restocking Model Projects 20x Production Improvement in Indonesia
As an archipelagic nation, Indonesia ranks third globally in fisheries and aquaculture production. Despite these abundant, nutrient-rich aquatic resources, the country still faces significant malnutrition challenges stemming from insufficient intake of protein, micronutrients, and essential fatty acids. In 2021, the average per capita fish consumption in Indonesia reached 25.33 kg, notably lower than Malaysia (52.7 kg), a nation with fewer resources (KKP, World Population Review). This disparity highlights the gap between resources availability and dietary outcomes.
Gender Analysis of Food Systems Policies:Supporting gender responsive policies and policy development processes in Nigeria.
- 22/12/2025
Nigeria’s food systems are critical for national development, yet women face deep-seated gender inequalities that restrict their participation, productivity, and access to resources, significantly hindering overall food security. Achieving a resilient and equitable food system requires moving beyond genderneutral rhetoric towards intentional policy shifts, fostering inclusive governance, and investing in gender equity across the entire food system. Prioritise equitable access to productive resources, strengthen women’s leadership in decision-making, enhance gender-disaggregated data systems, and champion community-led social norm change to build a sustainable food system where no one is left behind.
Latest Review Series reveals USD 11 Trillion Bill in Food System’s Hidden Costs, a Significant Underestimation
Latest Review Series reveals USD 11 Trillion Bill in Food System’s Hidden Costs, a Significant Underestimation • A partial USD 11 trillion bill: According to FAO’s latest estimates, food systems cost the world over USD 11 trillion per year in hidden health, socioeconomic, and environmental burdens – an amount larger than the GDP of most major economies. However, this figure likely represents a substantial underestimation of true costs and benefits as it does not capture all relevant negative and positive impacts. • Health costs are the largest contributor, but micronutrient malnutrition remains invisible: Diet-related diseases, premature mortality, and productivity losses from illness are the biggest drivers of these costs, yet we are still failing to measure the true price of micronutrient malnutrition. • The equity crisis: Existing research and data are heavily skewed toward high-income countries, leaving the severe burdens in low- and middle-income nations largely hidden.
Quantifying the Socio-Economic Impacts of Food: A Review of True Cost Accounting Methods
- 15/12/2025
Global food systems generate significant socio-economic impacts (or externalities) – both positive and negative – which greatly vary across geographic regions, supply chains, and production systems.